Dr Sam Hazledine, founder of MedRecruit, said he was confident following public consultation his proposed addition to the Declaration of Geneva, which puts a focus on doctors’ wellbeing, would be ratified at the next full general assembly in Chicago next October.
The idea to petition for another value to be added to the modern-day Hippocratic oath came after speaking to graduation medical students around New Zealand last year about the results of several years of research he did
into the wellbeing of doctors.The research showed 87% of doctors were "stressed beyond levels that are productive".
"In a survey of over 12,000 doctors, only 6% rated their morale as positive.
"Over 50% of doctors are right now experiencing symptoms of burnout. Over 50% regret the decision to become doctors.
"The profession is in a massive crisis, but it’s a crisis we hide behind our professional facade.
"The worst part comes from more research I did which is stress in doctors leads to depersonalisation, which is an emotional disconnection from our patients, and depersonalisation leads to increases in major medical errors.
"So when I found that ... it takes the link from ‘stress is bad in our profession’ to ‘stress is harming our patients’ and at that point it becomes a ‘must-change’ [situation]."
Dr Hazledine said core to the medical profession was the "patient-came-first" attitude, which meant doctors sacrificed their own wellbeing for that of their patients.
"The shift is not saying ‘put the patients second’; it’s saying ‘the patients come first, so I really need to look after myself’.
"If we can change the Declaration of Geneva, our value set as doctors, then that can influence every doctor in the world and then that will influence every person in the world, because we’re all touched by doctors."
